


what drives you through the dark

by kaerstyne



Category: The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask
Genre: Body Horror, Drabble Sequence, Gen, Mask Transformations (Majora's Mask), Multifandom Drabble Exchange, POV Second Person
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-19
Updated: 2020-07-19
Packaged: 2021-03-05 03:08:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 500
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25377427
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kaerstyne/pseuds/kaerstyne
Summary: Link's relationship with his transformations shifts and mutates over time.
Comments: 3
Kudos: 25
Collections: Multifandom Drabble 2020





	what drives you through the dark

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Phlyarologist](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Phlyarologist/gifts).



The first time you're forced into a body that is not your own, you feel like your head is going to burst open from the waves of magic assaulting it.

You're not sure if the Deku scrubs crowding around you are real or pain-induced hallucinations, but you can feel their leafy bodies pressing into you, feel your legs dragging you away before you're smothered. But even as you run, you can still hear their footsteps closing in.

Then suddenly the pain recedes, and you're staring down at your own wooden hands with eyes that feel too big for your skull.

  


* * *

  


The trigger may be called the Song of Healing, but parting with the Deku scrub form doesn't feel like healing so much as forming an uneasy truce with a foreign power. Neither you nor the spirit inside the mask wanted your union, but you're stuck together whether you like it or not.

Donning the mask again later is painful, almost as painful as the initial transformation, but you grit your teeth and push through. This body is not yours, may never truly feel like yours, but you're learning how to use it to aid your mission. That's enough, for now.

  


* * *

  


It's different when you receive the Goron mask. Darmani clearly is healed by your song, the sorrows of his death eased, and receiving his mask feels like an expression of gratitude. You helped him, so he granted you his strength to help you achieve your mutual goal.

It still hurts to transform, magic ringing through your skull as your body stretches and contorts itself into your new form. But when it's done you can feel Darmani's determined spirit in the back of your mind, and you turn as one toward the opening of the cave, ready to get to work.

  


* * *

  


It's the same when you meet Mikau on the beach. You've never been good at ignoring people who need your help, and he all but begs you to save Lulu in his place. Giving him a proper send-off and accepting his mask is the right thing to do.

You scream as the mask's power sinks into you, but it's a scream of resolve, of acceptance. You still feel wrenching and grinding beneath your skin as your bones and muscles shift into position, but you do your best to shrug it off. This time it's a hurt that you chose yourself.

  


* * *

  


When you finally stand on the moon before the cursed mask you've come to fight, you can feel your whole body thrumming with anticipation. The mask of the fierce deity almost sings as you bring it to your face.

This mask doesn't have one spirit, you realize as the first wave of pain wracks your body, but thousands of them. You bare your teeth in savage grin and let them pour into you, sculpting your very blood with their power and molding you into something more.

And then you stand before Majora and match its righteous fury with your own.


End file.
